This story has been simmering for a while now, but I only recently learned of it.  Basically, Army Master Sergeant C.J. Grisham, who has been one of the most prominent military bloggers for five years, found himself in trouble with his superior officers after posting a series of articles earlier this year documenting his attempts to get parents involved in a decision made by the principal of his children’s school to introduce uniforms.  Master Sergeant Grisham was not against the uniforms, per se, but questioned the necessity of introducing them well into the school year, and after an expensive Christmas holiday.

After Grisham posted video of a public meeting on the issue, some school board members called his superiors to complain.  During the next month, he was ordered to remove the video and several posts.  When his wife took over, assuming she wouldn’t be under the same restriction, he was also reprimanded.  Eventually, he decided to close the blog, saying that it wasn’t worth the trouble to continue writing, only to get yelled at by the officers.  Earlier this month, the site was taken over by a retailer serving the military community in order to keep it going.

I think it is pretty easy to say that this situation is highly disrespectful to a patriotic soldier and shows a military leadership that is out of touch with today’s America.

I often see soldiers and military leaders say that they fight for our right to speak out against the government.  So surely this statement applies equally as much or more to the people doing the actual fighting?  Apparently not, according to the mid-level officers in the military.  Now I remember that most of the people I’ve seen saying the above statement typically do so with an attitude that indicates they actually want you to just stop talking.

That appears to be the conclusion of the officers with whom Grisham has dealt, whether in this scenario or earlier ones (such as when he criticized President Obama).  If your speech isn’t completely positive, than it is something to worry about.  If you’re a soldier out of lock step with the military’s message, you’re a threat.  This, of course, has always been the biggest irony about the military here in America: an inherently collectivist organization (you have to be to keep cohesion) in a country that reveres individualism.  I believe that this is a clash that was just waiting to happen, particularly in the age of the Internet, when the whole world can potentially see what you have to say.

While Grisham has been getting all kinds of trouble from the mid-level officers, it appears that the top brass, the government (including the current President and the last), and his fellow soldiers all support him.  Yet, I get the sense that C.J. just isn’t getting the action he needs from the top, where it counts the most.  That is, there is nobody there to try and change the attitude of the lower echelon of officers, showing them that not only is C.J. not a threat, but that his work is a vital part of our democracy.

C.J.’s blogging work should be celebrated, not censored, but that some officers in the military wish to do so is not so surprising.  I’m certain that C.J. Grisham certainly isn’t the first to speak out against a government entity while enlisted.  What is different these days is the reach of the audience.  Before the Internet, the flow of information could be relatively contained to a certain country. But now the advent of the Web, and particularly blogging, have broken down borders that once existed.  Grisham can have his own site, and reach a world wide audience.

I guess I can see why some in the military might have a problem with that.  Perhaps they fear that one of our enemies could use Grisham’s dissent against the government as propaganda in their own region of the world.  Sort of a, “Look, even an American soldier disagrees with his own government.  So why should we listen to America?”

However, the PTA dispute is of a completely different nature.  Not only were his posts on it not against the federal government, but they were so miniscule in the scope of things (though not to him, I’m sure) to off the radar completely in terms of compromising America’s security.  I think that the military is simply old fashioned and taking a long time to catch up with changing trends in technology, which is ironic, since the Internet’s forerunner was a military invention.

That said, I’m not sure what connections someone on the Huntsville, Alabama school board has with Grisham’s superior officers, but perhaps it should be investigated why mid-level military officers appear to be taking orders from a local board of education rather than the President of the United States.

Meanwhile, bloggers like C.J. Grisham need all the support we can give them, and many military bloggers are doing just that by going silent on their own blogs.  Grisham has served his country in order to allow his fellow citizen a voice, and as long as he isn’t violating national security (which he hasn’t been doing), his own voice shouldn’t be silenced either.